Ask the shelter: Pet Q&A

Tonto, a 3-year-old cattle dog mix, can t be left unattended or he will run off. He likes to chew stuffed toys and tennis balls, and should be paired with an active family.
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Q: Why don't dogs and cats have belly buttons like people do?

A: Interestingly enough, they do, they're just not as prominent or obvious as ours.

Puppies and kittens get nourishment from their mothers from an umbilical cord just as human babies do -- and it's usually connected at their bellies.

When animals are born, the umbilical cord is either cut off or chewed off (if the animal is born in the wild) and eventually kind of shrivels up. I've seen newborn kittens with just a little bit of umbilical cord still attached. It goes away in time.

There is typically a scar or a mark where the umbilical cord was attached, but it's often difficult to see because it's covered in fur or simply not as obvious as ours.

Mirabel, a 4-year-old dilute tortoiseshell, came to the shelter with front paws declawed. She s calm and loves to spend time in laps.
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While your pup or cat couldn't ever be considered as having an "innie" or an "outie," he or she most definitely has a spot where he or she was connected to mama in the uterus, which could be looked at as a belly button.

Sometimes an animal can get a hernia where the mom chewed the umbilical cord but didn't actually take it all the way off, and it didn't heal or close. If you see that on your pup or cat, it might be a good idea to get it checked just to make sure it's not causing problems.

Q: Why does my male cat have nipples?

A: From what I could find, all male mammals have nipples (even armadillos, if you can imagine it!) and there are a number of theories as to why.

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One is that way, way back, the male of the species may have also lactated to help nurse and feed the young. Another theory is that it's one of the odd evolutionary quirks that, because of its lack of harm, has never really gone away. In other words, the male nipple doesn't really cause all that many problems for the species (or threaten its existence), therefore there's no reason for natural selection to eliminate it.

The theory that is most likely the case, though, is that apparently, mammals are asexual during the first six weeks of gestation. Yes, there are X and Y chromosomes that combine during insemination that determine sex, but it's not until the sixth week of pregnancy that the Y chromosome gets activated to bring out the boy, so to speak.

It turns out that nipples develop earlier than that, hence both males and females have them.

Ask the Shelter is a weekly feature aimed at pet education. If you have a question, contact Jennifer Vanderau, director of communications for the Cumberland Valley Animal Shelter, at cvasoc@innernet.net or 263-5791.